2007 MIT Mystery Hunt

The 2007 MIT Mystery Hunt involved signing a pact with the devil,
who led teams on a descent through hell to retrieve the Mystery Hunt
coin. The coin was recovered by Dr. Awkward at 2:14am, Sunday, January
14th.

The hunt began with teams gathered in Lobby 7. The Evil Midnight
Bombers What Bomb at Midnight announced the hunt would contain
270--no, 271--no 271 ½ puzzles, all in keeping with the first
unpardonable activity of gathering the assembled puzzlers into a
massive sudoku grid. The motivational speaker Michael Fauntleroy came
in to save the day, offering the teams the opportunity to get the coin
and win the hunt in a mere 25--no, 15--no, 5 puzzles, if they'd only
sign a simple contract with some unreadable fine print.

After nearly all teams found the coin within a few hours of
starting the hunt, they realized that by signing the contract, they
had sold their collective souls to Michael Fauntleroy Stopheles
(M.F. Stopheles, for short) for a mere penny. To get their souls back,
they would have to complete his course of videos on how to be really
really evil in various fields, and all the puzzles therein. This would
raise their Evilometers to a level where they could rise in power
for a showdown with the devil.

Along the way, they also had to complete a series of unfortunate
events that would show how proficient they were in each of the seven
deadly sins. These helped unlock their seven Sin Meters, which each
were linked to certain thematic puzzles. Filling their Evilometers to
a certain level unlocked a Hell Runaround, which led them on a wild
goose chase through the halls of MIT and down into hell. There they
received seven Hell Puzzles, all completely unsolvable without an
additional instruction page gained by unlocking the appropriate Sin
Meters.

Finally, at each stage, the teams received a certificate of their
evil achievement. These certificates were used in the final epic
battle with the devil, after which the teams regained their souls and
triumphed over evil.

The Hunt, as seen by solvers late in the
game (the meters and spiral would fill in as puzzles were solved).
Solutions are available from the puzzle pages, and the certificates
are at the bottom of the page.

The Sin events are not represented on that page, however. They were, in chronological order: